On
Iraq,
UNSC Belated
Speaks on
Carnage, Iraqi
PR Tells ICP
They've
Wanted
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 25 --
After the UN
Security
Council much
belatedly
issued a press
statement
Monday on the
carnage in
Iraq, Inner
City
Press asked
the Council's
president and
then Iraq's
Permanent
Representative
what had taken
so long.
Just
as the
Security
Council has
not met or
even had a
briefing about
Libya and
militias in
Tripoli
killing dozens
of civilians,
there is a
similar
resistance to
admitting how
un-solved Iraq
is after
intervention.
But
Iraq's
Permanent
Representative
Mohamed
Alhakim told
Inner City
Press
that his
country had
been asking
the Council to
issue a
statement.
Inner
City Press
asked, so it
was only the
US opposing
it?
He
replied that,
"We wanted a
clear"
statement.
"Sometimes
a mixture of
different"
approaches
"and we were
against
that." We
said, "please
come up with
something
unified,
strong,
target the
organizations
and countries"
behind the
terrorism,
which "has
support of
money."
The
press
statement
provides:
"The
members
of the
Security
Council
underlined the
need to bring
perpetrators,
organizers,
financiers and
sponsors of
these
reprehensible
acts of
terrorism to
justice, and
urged all
States, in
accordance
with their
obligations
under
international
law and
relevant
Security
Council
resolutions,
to cooperate
actively with
Iraqi
authorities in
this regard. "
Inner
City Press
asked Martin
Kobler's
successor as
UN envoy to
Iraq
Nickolay
Mladenov about
his upbeat
tweet, that
the day's
briefing was
"against a
backdrop of
encouraging
1st steps on
Geneva II
&
Iran interim
agreement."
Mladenov
replied
that these are
"positive
first steps,
lessing region
tensions and
creating a
regional
approach to
the challenge
of
sectarianism
and
terrorism." Video
here from
Minute 1:30.
At
the day's noon
briefing,
Inner City
Press asked
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon
spokesperson
Martin Nesirky
if in the UN's
view armed
groups
affiliated
with Al Qaeda
can attend the
Geneva II
talks on
Syria, set
for January
22. Nesirky
replied to ask
the
opposition. Video
here, from
Minute 24;
26:43. We'll
have
more on this.
, 
